The Quest for Food: A Natural History of Eating is a collection of essays that surveys eating through time, from the perspective of a biologist.

"Through a series of essays concerning human eating seen from the perspective of contemporary biology / medicine and recent research articles, the book explores the links between food and Man's cultural and physical evolution. Each chapter has an introduction summarizing the basic knowledge in the field, discusses the recent research results, and confirms or challenges the established concepts, which opens new aspects and leads to new questions.This book catalyzes discussion between scientists working on one side in food science and on the other side in biological and biomedical research. TOC:Foreword.- A few glimpses of biological anthropology.- Basic concepts on eating.- The central carbon pathway.- De revolutionibus orbium metabolicorum.- Bioenergetics.- The beginning of biochemistry.- Early eaters.- Photosynthesis.- The acquisition of the atoms of life.- Nutritional interactions in the ocean: a microbial perspective.- Early steps in predation.- Increasing complexity.- Animals: enlarging the food space.- Eat or be eaten: Anatomy of the marine food chain.- Life histories between the land and the sea.- The war of the senses: the example of echolocation.- Herbivory.- Choosing food: to eat or not to eat.- A lion's share?- Going for our blood.- Going for our gut.- From gut to blood: the battle for iron.- An agro(-eco)nomical outlook: Feeding the billions.- Index."

A Nutritional Conditio Humana.- Some Aspects of Nutritional Biochemistry.- Bioenergetics.- The Evolution of Eating Systems.- The Ecology of Eating Systems.- Eating Cultures.- We as Food and Feeders.- An Agro(-Eco)nomical Outlook: Feeding the Billions.